Transcript
Capital One Bank Guy (0:00)
Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank Guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Oh really? Thanks Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC.
Erin Menke (0:34)
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.
Aaron Manke (0:42)
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Erin Menke (1:06)
Defeat it's not something any of us hope to encounter in life, but for almost all of us, it is inevitable. However, for military commanders, defeat has mortal consequences. Every move, every choice on the battlefield means some men will die. Commanders just have to hope that they make enough right choices so that casualties are limited and victory is secured. In 1904, there was one naval commander who unfortunately made all the wrong choices. His defeat was so total that it changed the course of history and is still studied to this day. Admiral Zinovy Mad Dog Rozhasvensky was known for his strong command style. As the leader of Russia's Baltic Fleet, it was on him to oversee a huge number of ships in the oceans north of Europe. Everything changed In February of 1904, though, when Japanese Admiral Togo Heihachiro led an assault on the Russian port authority in modern day northeastern China. The Japanese were tired of the Russians encroaching on land and resources in the Yellow Sea. The Russians were used to being the strongest power in the region, and they paid no mind to their Chinese and Japanese neighbors. But Japan was a newly industrialized nation after the meiji Restoration in 1868, which brought back Imperial rule, the Japanese rolled over the Russians on land and sea, overwhelming them with superior tactics and technology. As such, Russia's only hope for reinforcements was Rozhosevensky's Baltic Fleet. But the problem is right there in the name. The Baltic Fleet was in the Baltic Sea on the other side of Russia, over 4,000 miles away by land and quite a bit farther by water, and they would have to travel all the way around the eastern hemisphere to reach the Yellow Sea. The Tsar renamed the Baltic Fleet the 2nd Pacific Fleet, and it began its long journey in October of 1904. It took seven months for the fleet to travel around Africa and across the Indian Ocean and South China Sea to reach their destination. Which is why it wasn't until May of 1905 that the fleet finally arrived in the Strait of Tsushima, where they were to engage the enemy. But right away, the balance was not in the Russians favorite. The sea was incredibly foggy, and so they could barely see anything or even communicate from boat to boat with signals. Heihachiro, meanwhile, had spent the long months since the Battle of Port Arthur outfitting his ships with new telegraph technology that allowed them to communicate wirelessly. His boats patrolled the straits, watching for any sign of the Russians. And that's when Rozhezvensky made a costly mistake. He kept his hospital ship lit, meaning that it could be seen through the fog. In the old ways of war, a hospital ship was lit up so that the enemy would know not to fire on it. But this was the dawn of a new age, and Heihachiro had no knowledge of Western customs. Rozhasvensky's next mistake was to assume that Heihachiro would bring his ships alongside the Russians for a broadside attack. This was the traditional attack, but once again, Heihachiro was only interested in new ways of war. Instead, he crossed the T, a naval warfare tactic where a commander brings his ship in front of the enemy column instead of alongside, forming a T shape. This allows the attacker to use all of their cannons, while the enemy can only use the few cannons on the front of their ships. Once Heihachiro caught sight of the hospital ship, he crossed the T and opened fire on the Russians. Rozhashvensky tried to surrender, but the Japanese didn't understand the Russian signals. They completely destroyed the Russian navy, killing 10,000 Russians while only losing a thousand Japanese sailors. The Russians soon had no choice but to cede control of the Yellow Sea to Japan. It was the first time an Eastern power had defeated a Western power in battle, and it gave the Japanese the confidence to continue to grow and expand their empire. Rozy Zvensky was wounded, but he survived and taken to a Japanese hospital. While he was recovering, Heihachiro visited him, saying, defeat is a common fate of a soldier. There is nothing to be ashamed of in it. The even bigger lesson for Russia, though, was one of the dangers of hubris. They were not innately superior to their Eastern neighbors. It was a lesson learned far too late, as Rozhvensky wasted months of his life and the actual lives of his men in his vain attempt to save his country's interests in Asia. Curiously, the Japanese would learn the same lesson decades later when they, like the Russians, overextended themselves and foolishly attacked a different, newly industrialized power across the Pacific. But that's a curious story for another day.